


She's Your Kingdom's Queen

by gilligankane



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-16
Updated: 2013-01-16
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Red wakes up with the taste of cotton in her mouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She's Your Kingdom's Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [missanomalous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/missanomalous/gifts).



> To brighten Alanna's day.

Red wakes up with the taste of cotton in her mouth. Cotton doesn’t have a taste, necessarily, but she feels like if it did, it would taste like this. She blinks wearily against the light coming in through window and-

She doesn’t have a window that looks over her bed.

The wolf wakes. This doesn’t smell like her room. It’s not as warm as her room. Slowly, she registers the weight of an arm around her waist, low around her hips. She can feel the tips of manicured fingernails resting on her skin and the small, hot blasts of air aimed at the back of her neck. The clock on the nightstand isn’t hers.

She certainly doesn’t have a picture of Henry on _her_ nightstand.

_“Leave,” Snow hisses. “You’re not welcome here.”_

_Regina’s eyes well up – not that anyone else beside Red can see it, with Regina standing next to her. It’s enough, though._

_“Regina,” she calls, the door to the diner slamming shut behind her._

_“What, Miss. Lucas?” Regina snaps._

_Red holds out a heavy pea coat. “You forgot this.”_

She takes in a shallow breath and holds it for as long as she can, her ears tuned in to every creak the bed makes as she tries to roll over soundlessly. She nearly bumps her chin on Regina’s forehead but pulls back quick enough.

Red finally exhales, her breath dislodging a lock of hair on Regina’s forehead. It falls down over her eyes and Red reaches for it without thinking about it, brushing it back behind Regina’s ear.

“Mhmm,” Regina breathes out, nestling into Red. Her forehead fits into the dip under Red’s nose, pressing against her mouth. Her fingernails scrape against the small of Red’s back, sending shivers up her spine.

When she’s done moving, settling back into sleep, Red lets her own eyes flutter closed. Regina is warm and soft. It’d be so easy to just pretend she never woke up in the first place.

_“It was unnecessary of you to walk me home.”_

_Red smiles crookedly. “I didn’t walk you home. I just happened to take myself for a walk.”_

_Regina looks back over her shoulder, scowling. “You are not_ cute _, Miss. Lucas.”_

_“I’m only doing what you said,” Red dismisses. She glances up at the big house Regina called ‘home’ for 28 years. “Aren’t you going to ask me inside?”_

_Regina looks at her strangely._

_“I did walk you home, after all,” Red adds._

_Regina huffs loudly and leaves the door open behind her when she goes inside. Red sees that as an invitation._

The wolf senses Regina waking up before Red does. It’s in the way her breathing changes from deep and steady to shaky and spaced out. Her hands flex against Red’s back but don’t settle again. They stay like that, her fingertips pressing harder now. The muscles in her legs tighten. She feels stiff in Red’s arms.

“Regina,” Red mutters into Regina’s hair.

The older woman goes absolutely still.

“Regina,” Red tries again.

Regina clears her throat and pushes back against Red’s hold. “I’m not sure what happened last night,” she starts, sitting up and taking half of the sheets with her.

Red smirks. “Really? Because I can demonstrate for you if you’d like…”

Regina’s eyes narrow. Red tries to take the unspoken threat seriously but Regina is holding a sheet to her front and her hair is tousled from sleep.

“You look adorable,” she voices out loud.

Regina scowls and climbs down off the bed, the whole sheet dragging behind her. “Miss. Lucas, it would do you well to-”

“Make some coffee?” Red interrupts. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

_“I have nothing to offer you,” Regina says. Her voice is low and somber, though, like she’s talking about more than not having any open bottles of wine._

_Red shrugs and puts the statue in her hand back down on the mantle. It’s a wolf-and-moon figurine and she’ll have to remember to ask about it later. She really likes it. “They’ll come around, you know.”_

_Regina pauses and then snaps her mouth closed. She swallows visibly. “Yes, well. I’ve never cared for the opinion of the Charmings.”_

_Red nods. “Okay.” She doesn’t really believe that and she’s not sure Regina does either. “But in case you did,” she adds, “They will.”_

_“What are you doing here, Miss. Lucas?” Regina’s question is direct and without anger, just curiosity._

_Red shrugs. “You can call me Red, you know.” She picks up the figurine again. “I know what it’s like to be alone.”_

_Regina laughs sharply. The wolf in her winces at the pitch. “Yes, I’m sure you do, dear.”_

_“I do,” Red repeats. She looks up at Regina from under her lashes. “And it’s a terrible feeling.”_

Regina stomps down the staircase. Red waits until she can hear Regina’s bare feet against the hardwood floors and then pulls the comforter around her shoulders and follows. She kicks at the clothes she finds along the way, toeing through them until she finds her t-shirt. She pulls it on as she hears the coffee grinder start.

Regina is standing at the island in the kitchen, her back to the doorway. Red’s eyes trace the tense lines of her shoulders.

Coming up behind her, Red lets her hand trail along Regina’s spine. “Here,” she says, placing the shirt she found on the staircase on the counter next to the coffeemaker.

“Was last night…” Regina trails off, turning around. The shirt she has on gives her a sense of authority and Regina stands a little taller. “Was it out of pity?”

Red lets the question linger between them for a heavy moment before she reaches out and slides her hand to the back of Regina’s neck. “No,” she says honestly. “It was about two people. One who really, really wants to do it again?”

Regina tenses for a moment but relaxes into Red’s hold, her hand coming to rest at Red’s hip. She tenses for a moment and pushes Red away gently. “Not so touchy feely, Miss. Lucas.” Her mouth turns up in a twist of a smirk. “You’ll have to earn that.” 

Red smiles a bit. Regina stands taller and somehow looks less-disheveled. She’s not sure what the turnaround is about, but she likes the way that Regina smirks at her and the way that even though she pushed Red back, her arms still hang within reach.

“Coffee?”

Red grins widely. Coffee is something she’s so glad she got a chance to experience, something she isn’t sure she could ever live without. “Coffee,” she agrees.

_It’s never taken so long to climb a set of stairs._

_As Regina’s hands trail along her skin, from her wrist to her elbow, and Regina’s mouth trails along her jaw, Red doesn’t really care._


End file.
